Matt sez, "Michael Moorcock agreed to let me post the introduction to his work in progress, a memoir of Mervyn Peake, author of the "Gormenghast" books and his wife Maeve.… Read the rest of the article: Michael Moorcock's biography of Mervyn Peake — excerpt

From the Sociological Images blog: "Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first presidential candidate to use television commercials. Below is one of his commercials, made by Disney, from 1952. Eisenhower was… Read the rest of the article: Earliest campaign commercials: Disney for Eisenhower

Tokyo Disneyland offers many charms, but none so, um, suggestive, as this Johnny Depp branded sausage. Link (Thanks, Tavie!)

Over on Crooked Timber, Daniel Davies has uncorked a hell of a rant on the fatuous absurdity of the old saw that "corporate officers have a fiduciary duty to maximize… Read the rest of the article: On the absurdity of "maximizing shareholder value"

Check out this 1980s, Soviet-era Estonian commercial for meat and meat products. Now this is what advertising is about: echoing chants, meat slurry being extruded from a machine, and nervous… Read the rest of the article: Soviet-era Estonian meat commercial

It's time again for Sysadmin of the Year nominations: The SysAdmin of the Year Award shines a spotlight on the IT superheroes behind the scenes working tirelessly to troubleshoot, problem… Read the rest of the article: Sysadmin of the Year nominations open

John Young has written some cool projects for Make, such as this helmet-mounted water gun. He just alerted me to another nifty thing he made: Commando Nerd patches, which can… Read the rest of the article: Commando Nerd Patches for iPhone scanning

My favorite type designers, House Industries, have a new set of fonts called Studio Lettering. The description is intriguing: Before the era of digital publishing, highly-trained artists in lettering shops… Read the rest of the article: House Industries "Studio Lettering" font collection

Coop alerted my to this amazing photo of "The Monster Korner" in a New Jersey hobby shop from 1964. Every square inch is a treat to the eyeballs. The only… Read the rest of the article: Monster Corner vintage hobby shop

Here's a short video of the Martin Jetpack that's going to be unveiled at the Oshkosh Airshow next week.

Irene Klotz of the Discovery Space website interviewed Edgar Mitchell about his claims that intelligent space creatures have landed on Earth and that the US government has been covering it… Read the rest of the article: More on moonwalker Edgar Mitchell's claim that space aliens have visited earth

Software engineer Neil Fraser made a video that uses domino falls to simulate logic gates, the basic building blocks of digital circuits. Domino Domino Logic (neil.fraser.name, thanks Michelle Hlubinka and… Read the rest of the article: Logic gates out of dominoes

Ian Cook puts paints on the wheels of his R/C cars and then drives them to paint pictures. Of cars. (And more abstract pieces too.) Rob has more details and… Read the rest of the article: Painting with R/C cars

Illustrator Patrick Owsley has been showing some of the excellent Flintstone's style guide art he's been working on. Here's a police truck he inked from pencil drawings by Mike Fontanelli… Read the rest of the article: Flintstones vehicle art

The woman above left is wearing bioptics, tiny Galilean telescopes mounted on eyeglasses that help some visually impaired people see well enough to drive cars. The problem is, many folks… Read the rest of the article: Eyeglasses with embedded telescopes

This sunblock commercial from Japan starring a fembot is creepy, especially the close-up at the end. Link

If James L. Harris really did what police say he did, then I would like to award him a Happy Mutant Criminal Award certificate. The 18-year-old is accused of stealing… Read the rest of the article: Man stole buses, drove them on routes, returned them at night

Over on Tor.com, Jo Walton (herself one of my favorite writers) reviews Jack Womack's sorely neglected novel Random Acts of Senseless Violence, a book I rank with Uglies, The Parable… Read the rest of the article: Jack Womack's underappreciated masterpiece, "Random Acts of Senseless Violence"

Some marriage-crazed brides are demanding that their bridesmaids get laser-surgery, botox, breast-enhancements and salon tans before Der Tag. Two weeks ago, Health Travel Guides, a medical tourism company, exhibited at… Read the rest of the article: Brides demand breast-surgery for their bridesmaids

Backstage at The Colbert Report, classic rockers Rush took a shot at playing "Tom Sawyer" on Rock Band. Fortunately, they don't play Rock Band on stage. Rush playing Rock Band… Read the rest of the article: Rush plays Rock Band